Everybody's Go-To Source For Supreme Court News Still Can't Get High Court Credentials

Lyle Dennistonwlulaw/YouTube
A blog that drew more than 5.3 million readers the day of the Obamacare decision still can't get Supreme Court press credentials, ostensibly because it doesn't have a wide enough reach.

SCOTUsblog has yet again applied for press credentials to the U.S. Senate's Daily Press Galley, the first step to getting credentialed for the high court, after being denied this summer because it doesn't have a big enough advertising base.

But the government doesn't seem to be in a big rush to give the Internet's best Supreme Court blog access to its subject.

"We are just beginning on it, and it will take a while for us to vet it," Press Gallery director Joe Keenan told Poynter, the media blog reported Thursday.

SCOTUSBlog founder Tom Goldstein, a lawyer himself, has a lavish, larger-than-life lifestyle that distinguishes him from other Supreme Court lawyers, The Atlantic has reported.

"[E]ven as outsiders rely on him for insider insights, many Court insiders see him as something of an outsider," The Atlantic wrote of Goldstein.

Currently, the blog is able to sneak in access to the justices because Lyle Denniston, SCOTUSblog's star reporter, who files stories for WBUR in Boston.

However, Denniston is 81 and will most likely retire at some point, potentially leaving the blog with no credentials.

But the blog might still have one more trick up its sleeve. Bloomberg became the blog's official sponsor last year, potentially giving the blog the widespread advertising access the Senate Press Gallery once thought it was missing.